The present invention relates to a portable exercise device, and in particular, to a portable exercise device which is foldable for easy storage and transportation.
Medical authorities in recent years have expressed strong admonitions as to the healthful benefits of regular exercise. Regular exercise programs have therefore become a routine part of the daily schedule for many individuals. When events interfere with routine scheduling of exercise activities, such as business travel, the individual may find normal exercise activities difficult or impossible to perform. It is therefore desirable that exercise devices be made easily portable to allow continued exercise regimens by, for example, a busy executive in the office or even when traveling. Such a portable exercise apparatus is desirably small enough to fit in common traveling luggage and able to provide a substantial variety in the types of exercises available to the user. A number of attempts have been made to achieve these objectives.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,862 to Sayman discloses a portable exercise device with longitudinal chest and lap bars and a torsion coil spring. The arms connecting the lap and chest bars to the coil spring are adjustable in length. The adjustable arms are fixed in position by tightening wingnuts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,548 to Hoffman is similar in that a pair of padded longitudinal bars are connected by torsion means which may include a coil spring. The arms connecting the longitudinal bars are adjustable by means of a series of spring locked notches. The coil spring may be replaced by springs of greater or lesser strength. A variety of exercises are shown to be possible with the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,914 to Friedman discloses a portable exercise device employing a padded chest bar and lap bars. The bars are attached to coil springs. An abdominal belt is used to hold the device in place on the user. Such a belt is also shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,622 to Anderson et al.
While the devices described above are disclosed as being portable, a greater degree of compactness is desirable to render the exercise device truly portable to a business traveler or other person desiring ease of transportation with a high degree of exercise capability.
The present invention addresses this need as described below.
The present invention is a folding portable exercise apparatus. The invention comprises a chest bar that is contoured to lie across the upper chest of the user, and a lap bar which lies across the thighs of the user in a seated position. Two pairs of rods connect the chest bar and the lap bar. Each pair of rods is joined by a coil spring. The apparatus is provided with an adjustable belt threaded through each of the coil springs and may be fastened around and underneath the user. The belt is primarily used when the apparatus is employed for exercises in a seated position. In this configuration, the chest bar is placed across the upper chest of the user. The lap bar is placed across the thighs of the user in a seated position. The belt is fastened underneath the user so that the two coil springs are positioned in the vicinity of the user""s hipbones. By adjusting the slide bracket on the belt one may lengthen or shorten the belt and thus provide suitable body contact of the lap and chest bars for the height of any user.
In this position, the user bends the upper torso forward toward the knees thus overcoming the resistance of the springs by exercising the abdominal muscles (abdominal crunches).
By using the arms alone to push down on the chest bar, the user may exercise the triceps. Or the user may place the hands under the lap bar and use the biceps to raise the lap bar up to join the chest bar.
Next, the user may reposition the lap bar against the abdomen so that the chest bar is extended from the body, level with the armpits. Placing the forearms on the chest bar, the user compresses the chest bar toward the lap bar working the latissimus muscles.
Furthermore, when the device is repositioned vertically, the user may exercise the pectoral muscles by placing the forearms along the outside of the respective bars and compressing the device using the arms and chest muscles alone. Also, the device may be placed on the floor and the user may exercise the back and lower abdominal muscles by assuming a seated position in front of the device with the legs bent at the knees or extended. The user may then operate the device by leaning back against the chest bar against the resistance supplied by the floor. Various other exercises are possible with the device.
A key feature of the invention is its ability to be disassembled and folded into a compact arrangement for storage and travel. Thumbscrews, set screws or similar means lock the pair of coil springs into the rods. By loosening the screws, the coil springs may be detached from one pair of rods. This allows the device to be separated into two components. One component comprises the chest bar, one pair of rods and the pair of coil springs. The other component comprises the lap bar and the other pair of rods. The rods are fastened to the respective chest bar or lap bar by nuts or similar means. The rods are held at right angles to the respective chest bar or lap bar by depressions in the respective chest bar and lap bar. When the rods are received in these depressions, they may be tightened in place by the nuts that tighten down on bolts passing through the bars and rods. When the nuts are removed the rods may lie nested along with the springs and belt in a hollowed out depression in each bar along the major length of the bars. Once all the hardware and belt are packed in the depressions the two halves are clamped snugly together and secured with a large rubber band around each end producing a compact package the length and width of the chest bar and lap bar. The folded apparatus is then of a size and shape that may be easily stowed in, for example, airline carry-on luggage.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide for a portable exercise apparatus that is able to exercise a variety of muscle groups.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for a portable exercise apparatus that is foldable into a compact form for easy storage and transportation.